Dozens of student pilots sue United Airlines and its flight school over fraud allegations

Dozens of former student pilots who say they racked up tens of thousands of dollars in debt for tuition are suing United Airlines and its flight school in the Arizona desert, saying it didn’t have enough teachers or aircraft to properly train and graduate its students.

The federal lawsuit accuses United and the school, United Aviate Academy, of falsely promoting a well-equipped, intensive training program that would put students on a path to becoming commercial pilots after a year. In reality, the students said in an amended complaint filed last week, their flight time was limited due to the staffing shortages and frequent staff turnover. In some cases, students were teaching other students, according to the lawsuit.

Some of the students said they ultimately left the program when it became clear they would not finish training after a year. But many of them alleged in the lawsuit that they were wrongly expelled from the school for “taking too long to advance" through the program.

Around the time of the pandemic, United purchased the pilot school in the Phoenix suburb of Goodyear to address a critical problem facing the industry: not enough pilots. Airlines have complained about the shortage for years, but they made it worse during the COVID-19 outbreak by encouraging pilots to take early retirement when air travel collapsed in 2020.

In a statement, Chicago-based United said it couldn't comment on specific allegations, citing the ongoing lawsuit, but it defended its pilot school.

“We have the highest confidence in the rigorous curriculum and flight training program provided at United Aviate Academy and are proud of the school’s hundreds of graduates,” the statement said.

The lawsuit claims the school had an enrollment cap of 325 students “to ensure sufficient resources.” Instead, according to the complaint, there were more than 380 students enrolled in the program in March 2024.

Within months, the school's accrediting body issued a warning letter to the flight school, in part because of its enrollment numbers, according to the lawsuit.

Around this time, the lawsuit claims that United Aviate Academy began expelling students from the program “in order to comply with the enrollment cap.”

By August of that year, the school was placed on probation by the Accrediting Commission of Career Schools and Colleges, according to the lawsuit. The school voluntarily withdrew its accreditation in January.

United told The Associated Press that it “is exploring an alternative accreditation that better meets the needs of the flight school.”

Richard Levy, a retired captain who flew for a major international airline for 41 years and who now works as a flight instructor in Texas, said a one-year program is in line with industry training standards. He said students who want to fly commercial jets will typically train for about a year for certain certifications, then go on to work for a regional airline and log additional flying time — up to 1,500 hours — before they can fly for a major airline.

What’s important, Levy said, is that students are flying frequently and following a structured, uniform program during their training.

But the lawsuit says that at one point there were roughly 20 aircraft for the hundreds of students enrolled in United's flight school. One student said he was able to fly just once or twice over several months and was repeatedly reassigned instructors. He was eventually expelled for “taking too long to advance” through his courses, the lawsuit alleges.

Another expelled student said she had a different instructor during each of her first four flights. During her eighth flight, she said, her instructor was a fellow student of the program.

“It was students teaching students," the lawsuit says. It also alleges that students were sometimes evaluated by instructors who were not pilots themselves.

Levy said he's “never heard of” non-pilots evaluating student pilots.

Most of the students suing said they took out loans with the expectation that they were attending a one-year program that would lead to “gainful employment.” Many of them had to relocate to Arizona to attend the program.

One student sold his home, according to the lawsuit. Another left his job of 21 years to “pursue his dream” of becoming a pilot while his husband stayed behind at their home in Texas.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in Phoenix on behalf of 29 former students from states across the country, including Florida, Texas, California, Colorado, Nevada and Connecticut.